Des Moines soccer stadium would be home to women's team as well as men's, organizers say

This article was originally published in the Des Moines Register. Click here to read the full article.

Sweetening their proposal, the backers of a planned men's pro soccer team for Des Moines say they intend to add a pro women's soccer team that would play in one of the nation's two top-tier leagues.

Kyle J. Krause, CEO of Krause Group, the former parent company of the Kum & Go convenience stores, said his company has signed a franchise agreement with the intention of establishing the Division I Gainbridge Super League women's team in Des Moines, the first of its kind in Iowa.

The team would share a $95 million stadium and events plaza with the already-planned USL Championship men's team, for which Krause's company holds the franchise. That league is one step down from Major League Soccer, the top U.S. pro tier for men, though the USL has said it is adding a competing top-tier league.

The stadium is planned for a site just south of downtown Des Moines' Western Gateway district on a remediated Superfund site near the Raccoon River that was cleared of a long-shuttered factory in 2021. Plans call for wider development around the stadium, including housing, shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.

Krause said launching the teams is dependent on construction of the stadium, for which the Iowa Soccer Development Foundation, which would own it, is seeking a boost in state support.

Gainbridge Super League, a nine-team league with several prospective members that launched last year, competes on the same level as the longer-established, 12-team National Women's Soccer League, which began play in 2013, though Gainbridge's split fall-summer season follows a different calendar.

Krause, who also owns the Des Moines Menace, a men's USL League Two team, said he believes there should be more opportunities for women's pro sports.

Interest in U.S. women's soccer has burgeoned with the U.S. team's repeated victories in the women's World Cup.

"I feel that equity for men's and women's sports is necessary," Krause said. "Equity is the opportunity, and I think that's what should happen. There should be equity in all kinds of ways for men and women, and certainly in sports. I believe that Krause Group believes that."

Adapting the stadium to serve both genders would include having four locker rooms instead of two to serve the home and away teams, he said.

"The women need a place to play, and the idea of the ISDF (Iowa Soccer Development Foundation) is to create that place to play for the women," Krause said.

Stadium required before a professional women's team can come to Iowa

To build the stadium, the Iowa Soccer Development Foundation, a nonprofit on whose board Krause serves, must close a roughly $22 million funding gap.

The project already has secured $28.5 million from the Iowa Economic Development Authority. That includes $5 million the agency's board added earlier this year to its initial Iowa Reinvestment Act 2021 grant of future sales and hotel-motel tax funding.

Polk County has pledged $17 million in support, the city of Des Moines is offering $1.5 million and private donors have committed $38 million, including $23 million from Krause and wife, Sharon.

But the initial $23.5 million from the state will flow in as tax receipts over 20 years, decreasing its net present value. As a result, the ISDF calculates it remains roughly $22 million short of its $95 million goal. It has been pushing back construction, which originally was targeted for 2024.

Now the ISDF is lobbying the city of Des Moines to include the stadium project in an application to the Iowa Economic Development Authority for additional state funding for reinvestment projects. The $10 million became available when an Ames project fell through, and the city of Des Moines has said it wants to devote it to a parking project to serve its planned Market District development adjacent to the East Village.

"We have a small shortfall that we need to solve very, very soon," Krause said. "We're working with the city. We would hopefully have an opportunity to work with the IEDA on that also, but the city has control over what happens from IEDA funds."

City Manager Scott Sanders said the city "would be excited for the prospect of a women’s professional soccer team in Des Moines," but added, "Currently though, our efforts are focused on the building of a stadium."

"The City’s intent is for both projects to move forward," Sanders said. "We will consider the full context of both projects eligible for the IEDA’s additional funds, including the possibility of a women’s soccer team, as city staff continue to prepare Des Moines' application for the latest IRA funding opportunity."

As far as the USL is concerned, there is no specific timeline for when players must take the field, as outlined in the franchise agreement. But the ISDF is eyeing the city's Dec. 8 deadline to prepare the application to the state, which is due two weeks later. Should it obtain an additional share of the state funding, construction of the stadium could begin as early as 2026, Krause has said.

What would the Iowa's first professional women's team look like?

Other Gainbridge Super League teams include franchises in Washington, D.C.; Jacksonville, Florida; Brooklyn, New York; and Dallas. The closest currently to Des Moines is in Louisville, Kentucky.

Neither the women's nor the men's Des Moines teams have names or team colors yet. For now, they will assume the project's name, Pro Iowa, but Krause said he plans to seek input from Iowa's soccer community when choosing team names.

Players from all over the country and the world would be on the Pro Iowa women's team, with the hope of producing more professional players from Iowa once the program is established in the state, said Krause, whose holdings include a top-tier men's team in Parma, Italy. A goal of Pro Iowa would be to help develop a soccer academy in hopes of seeing more professional players come out of the Hawkeye State.

"I'd love to have a roster full of Iowans," Krause said.

The Gainbridge Super League is named for the Indianapolis-area financial services company that is its top sponsor ― and which also has naming rights for Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the arena where former University of Iowa guard Caitlin Clark is a star on the Indiana Fever WNBA basketball team.

Gainbridge has a game calendar identical to that of global clubs, running from August to May. In comparison, the National Women's Soccer League and the men's USL teams' season starts in March, with playoffs and the championship taking place in November. Scheduling during the seasonal overlap will have to be determined, but Krause sees it as another opportunity to double the use of the proposed stadium.

"We always intended the stadium to have more activation than just the men's games, anyway," he said.

A second team and more games also would support the mixed-use development proposed for the stadium district, he said.

"For those invested in the stadium, you want high-level activity inside that stadium," he said, adding, "It's something to go out and do and be part of."

Des Moines shows up to support soccer, Krause said, with the Des Moines Menace, which plays home games in West Des Moines' Valley Stadium, having led the league in attendance nearly every year since he took over ownership in 1998.

"From a community standpoint, the fact that both the men's team and the women's team will be here ― call it, all the time ― allows for that inclusive, community-driven type of fan engagement, community impact, and certainly an economic impact," Krause said.

He said he hopes the potential Pro Iowa women's team also would create an opportunity for girls to aspire to become professional athletes

"By having the women here, year-round, being part of the community, certainly from a girls' aspiration standpoint, you see these women, you have a chance to grow," he said.

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